Alaska Air plans to acquire smaller peer Hawaiian Airlines for $1.9 billion. The two parties announced this on Sunday. The deal is subject to approval by US financial authorities and this process could take up to a year.

Hawaiian had been in serious financial trouble for some time and was looking for a way out. The airline's share has plummeted by 65 percent in the past twelve months. Alaska approached Hawaiian and would very much like to acquire the carrier, according to the offer, which amounts to 18 dollars per share, four times as much as last Friday's closing price.

Alaska Air has a market value of more than five billion dollars and - if the takeover is approved - it will have a 50 percent market share in Hawaii's aviation industry. The Pacific archipelago is a major attraction for international tourism.

"Hawaii is the place where people want to vacation, get married and plan parties," Alaska Air CEO Ben Minicucci said in a statement. He expects U.S. financial industry regulators to give their approval.

If there is too much overlap of routes between airlines, takeovers can be a problem because there will be too little competition and this will disadvantage consumers. Minicucci points out that this is not the case with Alaska Air and Hawaiian: there is an overlap on twelve of the 1,400 routes.

The green light for the takeover could take quite some time; Minicucci expects the merger to be completed by the end of 2024.

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* Origin: AVIATION ECHO HQ (2:292/854)